Strong support for age bands in guidance on EYFS - survey

More than 300 responses were received to the first draft of the document which is being produced by the Early Years Coalition. It aims to support the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework as an alternative to the recently revised Development Matters guidance that received criticism from some areas of the sector.

Throughout consultations there has been strong sector support for bands which present a progression in the Areas of Learning and Development. There is, however, uncertainty about the best way to link the bands to ages.

Nancy Stewart, who is project lead on Birth to Five Matters, said that this has been the ‘thorniest issue’ because it is a complex balance between wanting to support inexperienced practitioners who may not have a grounding in child development with the critical awareness that every child is an individual and should not be judged by rigid age expectations.

‘There is an overall progression in development and learning, but learning does not run in a straight and predictable line and children develop at different rates, so individual children should not be expected to match the outlines in the bands at particular ages,’ she said. ‘On the other hand, age links can be useful for supporting knowledge of child development, and to identify when children may be in need of additional support.’